On the Same Page Event Explores the Trials and Triumphs of Living with Mental Illness

“His love of music was something that intrigued me. He has found what he loves. He has this passion, this happiness that many of us will never find.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was describing a friend who rose above amazing challenges as a young musician. As a college student and an African-American from Cleveland, Ohio – rising to young adulthood during the Civil Rights Movement – Nathaniel Anthony Ayers joined other students from more privileged backgrounds as a scholarship student at The Juilliard School, and was a student there during the same period as famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Decades later, Lopez was headed to the L.A. Times building when he discovered Ayers on the streets, playing a two-stringed violin and living out of a shopping cart. A mental breakdown at Juilliard, and a diagnosis of schizophrenia, may have ended the aspirations of what had once been a promising classical-bass prodigy who, at the time of his first encounter with Lopez, was living on Skid Row. But as their friendship was shared in Lopez’s columns in the L.A. Times, thousands of readers would discover how Ayers’ passion for music could calm a troubled mind, and how his story would become a community concern and call for action for top city officials.

The story was the inspiration for Lopez’s bestseller, “The Soloist – A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music.” The book is the featured selection of the eighth-annual “On the Same Page” community-wide reading program. Lopez shared highlights of the book during a Feb. 9 discussion and book-signing at the University of Cincinnati, supported by UC’s Just Community.

“His [Ayers’] greatest gift is to put a human face on this issue and de-stigmatize mental illness,” Lopez said. His efforts to get Ayers off the streets and into the assistance of social services evolved into columns examining the plight of as many as 80,000 homeless people in Greater Los Angeles.

 “Many have a severe or chronic form of mental illness,” Lopez said. “You can turn a corner in L.A. and see things that you would not expect to see in this country. There are thousands of people like Nathaniel sleeping on the street.”

Lopez’s book ended as Ayers cautiously agreed to move into an apartment supervised by a social service agency, an effort that took a year of convincing Ayers to move off the streets. Lopez told the UC audience that despite successes and setbacks in living with his mental illness, Ayers is still living in the apartment and has been living there for four years.

“Nathaniel has taught me that I have my own passion,” Lopez said, “not notes on a page, but words on a page. This has been a great gift, and I feel bound to share my story.”

Lopez’s appearance was preceded by a performance by the CCM Beijing String Quartet, featuring Yabing Tan and Zhang Ying on violin, Rose Reidmiller on viola and Pan Chang on cello – all sophomores in the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Reidmiller is a native of Cincinnati and the other members of the quartet are at UC via the Great Wall International Music Academy, Beijing Central Conservatory. The event also brought donations to CCM’s Lonely Instruments for Needy Kids (LINKS) program, which provides instruments to students throughout Greater Cincinnati.

Here’s the schedule for additional “On the Same Page” CCM performances and LINKS donations:

• 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 24 – Anderson Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
• 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 11 – Harrison Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Rookwood Pavilion will accept instruments March 7-8 as part of its annual LINKS donation weekend.

The “On the Same Page” community-wide reading program is a project of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and is made possible in part by the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Magazine, CET, 91.7 WVXU, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Panera Bread and the Friends of the Public Library.

On the Same Page Web site